played at the Readers' Feast in the Middle Temple, on the 2d of February, 1602. Among the spectators was one John Manningham, a barrister, who left a Diary containing some notes of the performance. The passage is given in our Introduction to the play, and so need not be quoted here. The Diary was stowed away among other manuscripts in the British Museum, where Mr. Collier unearthed it in 1828.4 To the same indefatigable hand we owe the discovery that Othello was performed as a part of the entertainment given by Lord Keeper Egerton to the Queen at Harefield in the summer of 1602. This appears by an entry of £10 paid "to Burbage's players for Othello on the 6th of August, that year. Of course they were here styled Burbage's players, because Burbage was regarded as the leading actor among them; and it is known from other sources that this great stage-artist sustained the part of the Moor. Adding the 4 The same Diary gives the following anecdote under the date of March 13, 1602: "Upon a tyme, when Burbidge played Rien 3, there was a citizen greue soe farr in liking with him, that before shee went from the play, shee appointed him to come that night unto hir by the name of Rich. 3. Shakespeare, overhearing their conclusion, went before, was intertained, and at his game ere Burbidge came. Then, message being brought that Rich. the 3d was at the dore, Shakespeare caused returne to be made, that William the Conqueror was before Rich. the 3d. Shakespeare's name Willm. Mr. Towse." It is very remarkable that, before the finding of this Diary, the same anecdote was current as a tradition. There is some question who was Manningham's authority for the story. Mr. Collier says the name of Mr. Towse often occurs as the writer's source of information; but in this the name is blotted so as to cause some uncertainty whether it be Towse or Tooly. The point is of some consequence as regards the authenticity of the anecdote, for Nicholas Tooley was an actor in the same company with Burbage. It was no uncommon thing for anecdotes of other persons to be applied to Shakespeare; and it is not unlikely that in this case the coincidence of names may have suggested a similar application. The demands of historical candour must be our excuse for noticing the matter at all. A manuscript Epitaph on Burbage, who died in 1619, has lately come to light, in which the leading parts acted by him are sx plays which we now hear of for the first time, or, inc.uding Hamlet, the seven, we have twenty-five, written before the end of 1602, when the Poet was in his thirty-ninth year. The great Queen died on the 24th of March, 1603. We Jave abundant proof that she was, both by her presence and Eer purse, a frequent and steady patron of the Drama, especially as its interests were represented in the Lord Chamberlain's Servants. Everybody, no doubt, has heard the tradition of her having been so taken with Falstaff in King Henry IV., that she requested the Poet to continue the character through another play, and to represent him in love; whereupon he wrote The Merry Wives of Windsor. enumerated. The following extract will show in what vein of Shakespeare he worked: "No more young Hamlet, though but scant of breath, Poor Romeo never more shall tears beget For Juliet's love, and cruel Capulet: Harry shall not be seen as King or Prince; They died with thee, dear Dick, Not to revive again. Jeronimo Shall cease to mourn his son Horatio: Which sought the bankrupt Merchant's pound of flesh, And his whole action he would change with ease But let me not forget one chiefest part Wherein, beyond the rest, he mov'd the heart; Whatever embellishments may have been added, there is nothing incredible in the substance of the tradition; while the approved taste and judgment of this female king, in matters of literature and art, give, we think, strong warranty for it. However, the subject is argued enough in our Introduction to the play; and all that we could say upon it now would be but a repetition of what is presented there. Elizabeth knew how to unbend in the noble delectations of art, without abating her dignity as queen, or forgetting ner duty as the mother of her people. Her last act of patronage to the drama is shown by the following entry in the accounts of the Treasurer of the Chamber: "To John Heminge and the rest of his company, servants to the Lord Chamberlain, upon the Council's warrant, dated at Whitehall the 20th of April, 1603, for their pains and expenses in presenting before the late Queen's Majesty two plays, the one upon St. Stephen's day at night, and the other upon Candlemas day at night, for each of which they were allowed, by way of her Majesty's reward, ten pounds; amounting in all to £20." St. Stephen's day and Candlemas were the 26th of December and the 2d of February. Before the latter date, the Queen had taken Sir Robert Carey by the hand, and said to him, "Robin, I am not well;" and she was never well after that, till she died. If the patronage of King James fell below hers in wisdom, it was certainly not deficient in warmth. The Poet's friend Southampton was among those who had been most favourable to his succession; and one of his very first acts was to deliver that accomplished nobleman from the harsh durance in which the Queen's rigour had left him. Even before he left Edinburgh, James invited the Earl, then a prisoner ir the Tower, to meet his friend and sovereign at York. Or the 7th of May, the King arrived in London, which was then under a visitation of the plague. On the 17th, he ordered out a warrant from the Privy Seal for the issuing of a patent nder the Great Seal, whereby the Lord Chamberlain's players were taken into his immediate patronage under the title of "The King's Servants." The main part of the instrument is as follows: "To all justices, mayors, sheriffs, constables, headboroughs, and other our officers and loving subjects, greeting: Know ye, that we, of our special grace, certain know) edge, and mere motion, have licenced and authorized, and by these patents do licence and authorize, these our servals, Laurence Fletcher, William Shakespeare, Richard Burbage, Augustine Phillips, John Heminge, Henry Condell, William Slye, Robert Armyn, Richard Cowley, and the rest of their associates, freely to use and exercise the art and faculty of playing comedies, tragedies, histories, &c., and such other like, as they have already studied, or hereafter shall use or study, as well for the recreation of our loving subjects, as for our solace and pleasure, when we shall think good to see them; and the said comedies, tragedies, histories, &c., to show and exercise publicly to their best commodity, when the infection of the plague shall decrease, as well within their now usual house called the Globe, as also within any town-halls or other convenient places within the liberties and freedom of any other city, university, town, or borough whatsoever within our realms and dominions. Willing and commanding you, and every of you, as you tender our pleasure, not only to permit and suffer them herein, without any your lets, hindrances, or molestations, but to be aiding and assisting to them, if any wrong be to them offered; and to allow them such former courtesies as hath been given to men of their place and quality: and also what further favour you shall show to these our servants for our sake, we hall take kindly at your hands." In pursuance of this order a patent was issued under the Great Seal two days after. By a similar instrument, the Earl of Worcester's players, with Thomas Greene at their head, and Thomas Heywood, the celebrated dramatist, among them, became "servants unto our dearest wife Queen Anne." Also, the Lord Admiral's company, at the head of whom was Edward Alleyn, received a like favour, creating them servants to the Prince of Wales. It is of more consequence to observe, that here, for the first time, we meet with Laurence Fletcher, and him at the head of the company. And this brings us to a question that has been a good deal mooted, pro and con, namely, whether Shakespeare were ever in Scotland. It is pretty well established that the tragedy of Macbeth evinces such an acquaintance with Scottish scenes and events, as can hardly be accounted for, but on the supposal of the Poet's having beer. actually there. And it is certain that James, having no drama in his own country, began his patronage of English players some years before he succeeded to the English crown. Spottiswood, in his History of the Church of Scotland, informs us that in the end of the year 1599 there "happened some new jars betwixt the King and the ministers of Edinburgh, because of a company of English comedians, whom the King had licenced to play within the burgh." The passage is given more at length, along with some other points of the argument, in our Introduction to Macbeth. In Scotland, the legal year at that time ended with December, in which very month, as appears from the public records, these " English comedians" experienced the royal bounty to the extent of 3331. 6s. 8d. But the players then in Elinburgh could not have been Shakespeare's company nor any part of it, because the accounts of the Treasurer of the Chamber show that the Lord Chamberlain's servants performed before Queen Elizabeth on the 26th of December, 1599. This munificence of the Scottish King would naturally induce other English comedians to follow in the same track. The Treasurer's books just referred to have an entry of payment "to John Heminge and Richard Cowley, servants to the Lord Chamberlain, for three plays showed before her Highness on St. Stephen's day at night, Twelfth day at night, and Shrove Teusday at night." These were December 26th, |